Rubio places hold on two Biden ambassador nominees, calls one a “Castro sympathizer”

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), released a statement on Tuesday saying that he is placing holds on two of President Biden’s ambassadorial nominees, to Spain and China. 

Rubio, the Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a senior member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, is objecting to these two nominees based on their records and actions that he sees as disqualifying. 

In a press release from Rubio’s Senate office, he objects to the nominations of Nicholas Burns for Ambassador to China and of Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón as Ambassador to Spain. 

Sen. Rubio argues that Burns’ career is “defined by the failure to understand the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party,” and that Ms. Reynoso “is a Castro sympathizer and apologist who has absolutely no business being in our government.”

Regarding Burns, Rubio adds that “Burns displayed no remorse or concern about his current business relationships with nationless corporations operating in China. Burns is exactly the type of nominee I expect from President Biden given this administration’s weak approach toward China, including lobbying against my bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The last thing we need is another caretaker of American decline in the room with the Chinese Communist Party.” 

And further regarding Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón, Rubio argues that “Her direct involvement in helping to exchange incarcerated members of the regime’s intelligence service, while serving a sentence in a U.S. prison amid the Obama-Castro appeasement policy, raises serious questions about her character and judgement. One thing I am confident of, though, is that Reynoso would not push Spain to increase pressure on the authoritarian regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. In fact, she will likely give Spain a pass for turning a blind eye. We need someone who is committed to freedom and human rights in the Western Hemisphere, not an envoy for dictators.”

Reynoso is currently First Lady Jill Biden’s chief of staff and an assistant to the president, according to The Hill. She also served in the Obama administration as ambassador to Uruguay and deputy assistant secretary for Central America and the Caribbean in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. 

“Rubio's decision to drag out the two ambassador nominations marks the latest setback for Biden's State Department picks,” according to the outlet.